Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
Writing Killer Text Ad Copy: Webcast November 11
Our November 11 webcast will cover one of the most crucial pieces of any ad campaign: copy.
Great Ad Copy. You know it when you see it, right? But how do you actual create great ads? In this webcast, we’ll break it down for you.
Writing Killer Text Ad Copy: 1001 Secrets for Success
Speaker: Matt Van Wagner, FindMeFaster
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 - 1 PM EST
Paid search expert Matt van Wagner will share some time-tested tips for text ad copywriting that will help you improve the your paid search campaigns.
OK, so maybe it’s not quite 1001 secrets…but Matt’s going to cover:
-Headlines: What works, what doesn’t.
-How to make a great sales pitch in 70 characters or less.
-Tricks the world’s best copywriters use to get their creativity going.
-Driving more clicks v. better clicks. How to balance CTR and quality score concerns.
-Should you use Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) Ads? Do they work or not?
Matt Van Wagner is President of Find Me Faster, a New Hampshire-based search agency. He is a frequent moderator and speaker at Search Marketing Expo.
Register here for this free webcast.
Thanks to Marin Software for sponsoring this webcast.
Monday, October 27th, 2008
Turn off those pop-up blockers…
If you’ve listened to enough SMN Webcasts, you’ll know that our first “viewing tip” is to turn off any pop-up blockers. That’s especially true for tomorrow’s webcast: “Measuring an Ad’s Value: A Forum Discussion,” which takes place at 1 PM Eastern.
Our topic is attribution management, or how to attribute revenue across a stream of ads. For example, if you have three search ads, and a customer looks at two but makes a purchase after clicking on the third, should that third ad get full credit for the sale? What if you run an email campaign along with a search ad - where do you attribute the resulting revenue?
In tomorrow’s webcast, we’re going to discuss various methods for attributing an ad’s value. We’ll look at a number of scenarios and poll the audience to find out what how online marketers and advertisers are valuing ads.
And that’s where the pop-up blockers come in — because we will be running several pop-up poll questions in tomorrow’s webcast, it’s important to make sure that pop-up blockers are turned off.
So, as we say on every webcast, “we recommend that you turn off any pop-up blockers…”
Haven’t registered? There’s still room, and it’s free, so go ahead and register here.
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
5 Ghastly PPC Mistakes to Avoid: Q+A Follow up with Patricia Hursh
We had a *ton* of good questions on our webcast last week and couldn’t get to all of them. Our speaker, Patricia Hursh, president of SmartSearch Marketing, was kind enough to answer some of these for us offline.
The entire webcast, “5 Ghastly PPC Mistakes to Avoid” is available on-demand at the Search Marketing Now website.
Thanks again to Marin Software for sponsoring the webcast.
Q) What could be the problem for ads that produce leads but not converting?
If you mean that search ads drive online registrations/sign-ups/contacts… but do not drive sales (either online or offline), there could be many issues. Are your products/services easy to understand and easy to purchase? Are they compelling? Priced competitively? Assuming no problems with the product/service itself – you should definitely analyze your keywords, ad copy, ad distribution, targeting, and landing pages. You might be getting too many of the wrong people clicking. Is your campaign attracting people who are NOT your target audience?
Possible solutions: Tighten your keyword list. Add negative keywords. Ensure that ad distribution and targeting are set properly for your audience. Write ad copy that pre-qualifies (i.e. describe your target audience in the ad).
Q) I am in the hotel industry and much of our PPC campaigns lead to other websites where we cannot track conversion data or overall effectiveness, what should we do?
So, assuming the “other websites” will not allow you to place any sort of tracking code on their pages… you must estimate the value of a CLICK to each site (based on the average historical conversion rate of the site). Are online coupons or discount codes a possibility? These may help you track conversions.
Q) How would you structure an account for an e-commerce site with hundreds or even thousands of products?
This type of campaign really isn’t what our agency specializes in…. but most marketers I know who are managing very large campaigns like this use a campaign management tool to help them set-up, organize and change the program quickly and easily. Regardless, a very detailed, granular campaign structure is required — with many campaigns and many ad groups in each campaign. Key question is: how do you want to allocate budget. This will determine the number of campaigns you require.
Q) What is your suggestion for campaign structure when your client has a really general product? I.E. a publication that can have different topics.
Without knowing much about your industry or product — at a minimum, I would suggest (1) a General Campaign, with many Ad Groups (branded description, product description A, description B, etc. etc.), and (2) a Specific Campaign, with many Ad Groups that describe each topic.
This will allow you to manage a budget for “general”, and a separate budget for “topics”. You might also consider a separate campaign for Brand.
Q) What are some resources to track where your seekers are in their search process?
Search Query is one of the biggest clues to buying phase. When prospects are early in their process they tend to search using generic words and short phrases (laptop computer). As they move into the compare/contract phase they start to enter more specific phrases (laptop computer user reviews), and finally, as they enter the decision/buy phase they enter very specific, longer phrases (purchase IBM Think Pad online).
You can also tell a lot about buying phase based on the actions people take on your site. Early researchers are likely to download basic industry information and market trend data. Folks in the compare phase love pricing guides and product comparison charts.
Resources:
· Look at your site’s internal search function.
· Analyze search engine referrer data.
· Look at your PPC keyword reports.
· Use Microsoft AdCenter Labs tools to find similar keywords and to understand search funnels (i.e. what do people search for before and after a particular search phrase) http://adlab.msn.com/alltools.aspx
Q) How long would you recommend letting a Gogle adgroup A/B split test run before making a change?
Technically, you want to run the test long enough to ensure that your results data is “statistically relevant”. You can find all sorts of information and formulas on how you calculate this. Some tools (such as Google’s Website Optimizer) provide information on relevance on risk.
Q) How does one convince their webmaster that we need to have analytics embedded into our pages in order to track the habits of a visitor?
There is always a cost associated with adding more tracking & analytics (whether it’s software cost, consulting costs, training time, or the hours required to set-up and then analyze all the data). The key question is: What will I be able to achieve with this additional data? What is the expected benefit to the business? This benefit must be weighed against the cost of additional analytics.
So, bottom line: you need to talk in terms of expected bottom line business results (more leads, cheaper leads, additional online sales, etc. etc.)
Thank you, Patricia!
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008
How do you attribute revenue across a team of ads?
Today’s webcast “5 Ghastly PPC Mistakes to Avoid” had some lively questions, including one that was a perfect setup for an upcoming webcast (no, we didn’t script the question, really):
“We currently track assist clicks, but am unsure about how to give credit to them. Some conversions occur w/ no assist, while other convversions take as much as 6 assists. Do you have any suggestions?”
Here’s one suggestion — join us for our October 28 webcast: Measuring an Ad’s Value, which is the kickoff for ClearSaleing’s Attribution Management Forum.
The Attribution Management Forum has been created by ClearSaleing to bring together the leading online advertising minds to help collectively identify, evaluate, vet & ultimately recommend the best attribution valuation practices and methodologies.
We’ll use a unique presentation style — taking advantage of the interactive polling questions — to allow greater audience participation and input.
Measuring an Ad’s Value: A Forum Discussion
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 - 1 PM EDT
In this webcast, we will
*Describe the tracking technology required to determine the actual team of ads and their sequence that lead to the conversion (the Purchase Path™)
*Explore various ad attribution classifications
*Review some common attribution issues and scenarios
*Survey all participants on best allocation methods for given scenario
Register now - it’s free!
Thursday, October 9th, 2008
SEM Agencies and Reporting: Best Practices for Success
It’s one thing to come up with amazing results for your clients, backed by solid data and analysis. It’s another to consistently communicate this in such a way that you foster and grow your agency-client relationship.
When well done, proper reporting and analysis well guide and improve all campaign efforts; support your client internally; and ultimately assist you in deepening and growing the engagement.
Our October 23 webcast will look at the coming of age of data and analysis – how the best marketers and agencies have moved from mechanical handling of rough data to true analysis.
SEM Agencies and Reporting: Best Practices for Success
Speaker: Kendall Allen, Senior Vice President, Digital Services, MKTG
Thursday, October 23, 2008 – 1 PM EDT
As a performance-based media and methodology, blended Search has its roots in data. In fact, it was PPC that first emerged as the Internet re-emerged in the early 2000s – as an ultimately trackable method of online marketing and therefore a go-to media for serious digital marketers. So, you are only as limited as your devotion to quality, depth and directional insights.
This webcast is a ‘must-attend’ for small and medium sized search agencies looking to improve their analysis and reporting process.
We’ll look at:
Establishing the right tools set
Fostering an ethos of strategy and analysis
Setting the framework: business and marketing plan; objectives and metrics; tracking solution – with clients
How to turn data into an interactive conversation
Engagement growth through true analysis and guidance
Collaborating within the agency to improve your own infrastructure, process and reporting product
Thanks to acquisio for sponsoring this webcast.
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
5 Ghastly PPC Mistakes to Avoid - October 14 Webcast
It’s October and that means Halloween is coming - so we’ve given our mid-October webcast a fitting Halloweenish title. Don’t be frightened…register now!
5 Ghastly PPC Mistakes to Avoid
Speaker: Patricia Hursh, SmartSearch Marketing
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 - 1:00 PM EDT (10 AM PDT)
In this webcast, we’ll hear from a seasoned expert about mistakes that can trip up anyone managing a PPC campaign. Whether you’re just starting out - or have been involved in paid search for years - we’ll share both basic and advanced PPC tips that can be learned from others’ past mistakes.
Patricia will cover a range of issues involved in managing a PPC campaign, including:
PPC Campaign Structure
Quality Score Tips
Click-Through Rates vs. Conversion Metrics
…and more. Thanks to Marin Software for sponsoring this webcast.
It’s free - register now!
